Blue BoyA character in an episode of an old TV police show called Dragnet. Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"You're pretty high and far out. What kind of kick are you on, son?"

Blue Boy was a character in an episode of an old TV police show called Dragnet. Originally airing on radio from 1949 to 1957, and on TV from 1951 to 1959 (later revived from 1967 to 1970), the premise of this show was based upon a no-nonsense, robotically stiff, straight-as-an-arrow detective named Joe Friday who works to maintain law, order and good old-fashioned values in an increasingly chaotic world.

In this episode, Friday and his trusty sidekick, Bill Gannon, receive a call about a young man behaving in a very bizarre manner, eating bark off of a tree, ranting and raving, and burying his head in the ground. Upon encountering the subject, the two cops ascertain that he's been "dropping that acid we've been hearing about." (This episode takes place in 1966, just as LSD was being illegalized.) Blue Boy then proceeds to fire off a brilliant barrage of lysergic-fueled non-sequiturs like, "There I am. I'm over there now! I'm not here anymore! My hair's green. I'm a tree!" and, "I could see the center of the Earth, the purple flame down there, the pilot light. The pilot light of reality!" as the cops haul him in.

A few months go by, and, as LSD's popularity skyrockets, Friday and Gannon try to help curtail the growing menace by busting an acid party in the Hollywood Hills, where they hear that Blue Boy has been dealing the stuff. Later, they track him down, only to find he's finally achieved his goal of getting as "far out" as possible.

Timeframe: Pre-Altamont.

Public Impact: Although now, 40 years later, the Blue Boy episode of Dragnet remains an all-time classic of unintentional comedy, Mr. Government will never laugh as he continues to wage a ludicrous, never-ending "war on drugs."